If adopted, endorsement would not come into effect until 1 January 2022.

After that date, member states can begin reporting data using the ICD-11 code sets when their countries have prepared their health systems for transition and implemented the new edition.

There is no mandatory date by which member states must migrate to the new edition and for a period of time, data will be collected and aggregated using both ICD-10 and ICD-11. It’s anticipated that even the earliest implementers will take several years to prepare their countries for transition.

Update and revision

Once endorsed, ICD-11 will be subject to an annual update and revision process, as ICD-10 has been.

Minor changes to content can be considered for incorporation on an annual basis. Major changes would be considered for incorporation on a 5 yearly update cycle.

Responsibility for reviewing and processing proposals now lies with the Medical Scientific Advisory Committee (MSAC) and the Classifications and Statistics Advisory Commitee (CSAC), which takes over from the ICD-10 Update and Revision Committee (URC). These committees are working through a backlog of proposals.

The ICD-11 Proposal Mechanism platform will remain online and open to stakeholders for new comments and new submissions for changes, additions and improvements. Submissions for changes will also be received from member states via the WHO-FIC Network.

Recently processed proposals

Between February and April, this year, a number of proposals were processed.

These include proposals for Postviral fatigue syndrome, Benign myalgic encephalomyelitis and Chronic fatigue syndrome; proposals for Fatigue (was Malaise and fatigue in ICD-10); and proposals for Bodily distress disorder.

Proposals submitted before March 30, 2017 were supposed to have been reviewed before the end of 2017 for consideration for potential inclusion in the initial release of the ICD-11 MMS — but many of these weren’t processed, despite having met the submission deadline.

Proposals relating to Postviral fatigue syndrome and its inclusion terms were in any case put on hold while an evidence review was undertaken. This review was not completed until late 2018.

This batch of recently processed proposals includes proposals submitted by Suzy Chapman (since 2014); by Suzy Chapman and Mary Dimmock (March 2017); and by Lily Chu MD on behalf of the IACFS/ME (March 2017).

The proposal submitted by the WHO’s Dr Tarun Dua, in November 2017, to delete Postviral fatigue syndrome from the Diseases of the nervous system chapter and reclassify ME/CFS [sic] in the Symptoms, signs chapter as a child under Symptoms, signs or clinical findings of the musculoskeletal system was processed in November 2018.

The WHO rightly rejected Dr Dua’s proposal, in a decision supported by the MSAC and CSAC Committees.

Status of processed proposals at April 15, 2019:

In order to access the ICD-11 Proposal Mechanism registration with the platform is required and the platform is clunky to navigate.

For ease of access, I have created a table which sets out the outcome of these processed proposals for Postviral fatigue syndrome, Benign myalgic encephalomyelitis and Chronic fatigue syndrome; Fatigue; and Bodily distress disorder.

(If you already have v1 or v2 of this document, please replace with v3 below, as this document has been updated to include the approval of an exclusion for PVFS under Fatigue.)